an artist with a sketchbook

Finding something new..

You can definitely get in a rut at times. I have been working on buildings of late in my sketchbook. Things have to go through that ugly learning stage before they get better. A challenging couple of weeks helped with Liz Steel’s course on Buildings. This is the third course Liz has presented through her website Sketching Now. All have been so good. See Sketching Now for more information!

So sketching buildings is new and so is finding a new coffee shop and we have found a new boat! While the boat is not new, it is new to us. We should take possession of the boat in the coming week.

Here are a selection of sketches.

This first one is from a meeting with the Yacht Club. I should have been paying attention to the presentation but got excited about the opportunity to sketch in the dark.

I discovered when I visited Starbucks they had changed all the seating around. My high chair had been moved. So I took a new view in lower seating.

A new coffee shop. The cost of coffee is slightly under that at Starbucks and has a nice taste! The inside is neat. Full of interesting stuff to sketch. I would like to return and just do a detailed sketch of the interior. If you sit near the window you can easily sketch the customers sitting outside.

I am starting to look at buildings the same way that I look at people. So that is a good sign. While it would be fun to drive everywhere to find interesting buildings my sketches would have more meaning if they were sketches of places in Sequim. I will say the neighboring town of Port Townsend has some incredible buildings! When we first visited Sequim to look for our home this building caught my eye. It continues to fascinate me. So there will be more sketches to come. I believe it once stored grain.

The first three sketches were sketched with a Lamy Safari pen with a fine nib in a Stillman & Birn Alpha sketchbook.

The sketches in the new coffee shop were sketched with a Lamy Safari pen with a 1.1 calligraphy nib and in a sketchbook I had made up at Kinkos from Fluid Easy Block watercolor paper. This is sketchbook #15 for 2016. (I think!)

The building was sketched with Sailor pen with bent nib in the Kinko’s sketchbook and my inside my car!

Do people ever catch what you are doing and ask if they can have the drawing of them in it?
If you ever see me at the Tea Leaf, could you draw me with the body I had 35 yrs. ago, along with the smile I had while I was driving a Corvette..please..lol.
Since I started following you, I have really started looking at buildings in a different way..thank you!

People are so involved in what they are doing they don’t notice what you are doing. If some one does notice I am sketching someone else they just smile. I have met some really nice people when I go out sketching. Also my sketches are not portraits they are quick sketches of people doing something. Where is the Tea leaf?

The Tea Leaf is in California across the street from Cypress Community College in the town of Cypress,Ca. It’s one of those rich kids kind of places to be “seen” at, just happen’s to be across the street from a really great college. I love to sit by the window and watch the traffic go by and dream of winning the lottery and moving on!

I have another favorite place called “It’s a Grind”. The chairs are those amazing high back chairs with this fun friendly feel along with music of the unknowns. You would have the best time in my hood. When you need to get away, come see me in Southern CA any time.